In forestry, trees growing in a forest are in many cases felled, delimbed and also cut to a desired length or into logs into with a so-called harvester, which is a self-propelled vehicle. The logs remain on the worksite, either on the position where they have been ejected by the harvester head during cutting or are deposited on one or more piles, which are optionally sorted according to defined parameters like intended use of the logs, and are collected subsequently with a so-called forwarder. The forwarder is also self-propelled and has an arm for grabbing one or more logs at a time and a loading space into which the collected logs are deposited. Once the loading space is sufficiently filled, the forwarder drives to a location adjacent a road and deposits the logs on a single or multiple piles, in particular sorted according to the intended use of the logs, from which they are later collected by trucks and transported to the next processing stage (saw mill, paper factory, etc.).
Recently, some electronic assistance has been proposed for the operator of the harvester and the forwarder. For example, according to U.S. Pat. No. 8,407,157 B2, the harvester can collect data about the location of the harvester when felling and processing trees, which is assumed to be located close to the location of the logs, together with material identifier data collected by a sensor to identify the type of the wood and data on the dimensions and weight. These data can be wirelessly transmitted to the forwarder. The forwarder can thus plan an optimal path to the logs in the forest and to the deposition location at the road, and be manually or automatically guided along the planned path. In another embodiment, the mentioned data are physically referenced on the logs, e.g., by RFID tag or a barcode, and read by the forwarder once sufficiently close to the logs. Similar path planning systems are described in WO 2014/122364 A1 and P. Flisberg et al., “Optimization Based Planning Tools for Routing of Forwarders at Harvest Areas,” Can. J. For. Res. 37:2153-2163 (2007).
WO 2012/069698 A1 proposes to send data about the harvested trees, which can be collected among others by means of a camera, to a central server, allowing a user to remotely check the felling operation in the forest.
The forwarder can be provided with a scale integrated into its arm, in order to sense the weight of the logs loaded into the loading space. The weight data can thus be recorded, together with additional data regarding the logs, in particular their number. Such information can, like corresponding information on the felled trees, be wirelessly sent to the forest owner (cf. for example brochure “Steuersysteme für Forstmaschinen der E-Serie, John Deere, print remark 4-2011). The number of the collected logs needs presently to be manually input by the operator.
EP 1 902 611 A2 describes an agricultural harvesting system sensing parameters of crop during harvesting and storing this material in a container with a traceability device, like a RDID chip or barcode. Information on the location of the container and its traceability device is stored on the harvester for later accession of the container with the crop.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,546 B2, also discussed in US 2006/0096667 A1, describes a transponder chip to be fixed to a log. An operator is equipped with a portable transmit and receive unit and writes data regarding the log onto the chip. When the logs are collected and loaded on a transport vehicle, the data of all chips can be read to provide a loading list of the vehicle, which is read at the factory gate receiving the logs and compared there with an announced list.